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Movie review: 'Journey 2: The Mysterious Island'

“Journey 2: The Mysterious Island” is a great PG-rated place to leave the kids while Mom and Dad sneak across the multiplex hallway to catch something more adult-friendly on another screen.

As long as your young'uns aren't adversely affected by what the Motion Picture Association of America describes as a movie with “some adventure action and brief mild language,” they'll thrill to sights such as giant carnivorous lizards and birds, and bees the size of ponies that people ride bareback — or bee-back if you prefer — when escape from the ravenous reptiles and famished feathered foes becomes necessary.

And all the eye-popping action jumps off the screen in “Fusion System” 3-D, the process developed by James Cameron and used to stunning effect in “Avatar,” making the wondrous vistas of “The Mysterious Island” come to vivid life in a photo-real environment of vertigo-inducing depth and breathtaking vastness.

Like the 2008 version of “Journey to the Center of the Earth,” the screenwriters — in this case Brian Gunn and Mark Gunn (MTV's “2gether) — have recast one of Jules Verne's 19th century science-fantasy classics in the present day, and Josh Hutcherson reprises the role of teen explorer Sean Anderson.

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